2008.03.25
Posted in Board Games at 5:09 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Trains filled my Easter weekend this year. Or at least, railroad-themed board games did.
On Friday afternoon, I played Ticket to Ride: Europe with my family. It was our second game, and everyone remembered the rules more or less, so getting started was really quick. The play was fast and furious, with my sister coming out ahead at the end.
Friday evening, we started a game of Empire Builder.
I had never previously played Empire Builder, and while I quite enjoyed it, the game ran longer than I would have liked. In fact, it ran long enough that we put the game aside after a couple of hours and finished it on Saturday.
Empire Builder also didn’t have the same type of tension I’ve grown accustomed to in Eurogames. Owing to its longer length, it plays a bit less tense, and the focus is more on long-term strategy than short-term optimization. It would probably have been tenser with more players, but the tension level was OK given the length of the game.
My biggest complaint about Empire Builder is that about an hour away from the end, it was already pretty clear to me that unless something drastic happened, I was going to win. There was nothing the others could actively do to screw me up at that point. My network was as built-out as it needed to be, and it was just a matter of moving enough freight to earn the rest of the $250M I needed to win.
If there was some way to cut the game short at this point I would have been happier – playing when the outcome seems like a foregone conclusion is not my favorite thing in the world. And I can’t chalk it up to superior strategy since I’ve never played the game before.
All in all, I enjoyed both games, and I would consider playing Empire Builder again, though it’s not a game I would want to bring out all the time.
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2008.03.12
Posted in Board Games, Food, Friends at 7:52 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
When I moved to my current address, one of the many upsides was that the balcony had a gas hookup for a barbecue on the balcony. I had always intended on buying one, but somehow I never quite got around to it. Until now.
Last Friday I went shopping and bought myself a barbecue. The beginning of the adventure was fitting it in the car.
Those of you who know me, and know what I drive, are probably wondering how I managed to fit a regular-sized barbecue in my car. It turns out that it fit perfectly well when everything was removed from the box, and divided between the back seat and the trunk.
In any case, my friend and coworker Brian used to work in a store that sold barbecues, and he has assembled many in his time. He offered to help me put it together, and I countered with dinner if he did. So, it was set. He and Pam (his wife) would come over for dinner on Sunday, and Arman would join us (he helped me carry the pieces in from the car). Brian arrived Sunday afternoon, and I had already perused the assembly instructions, figured out what was what, and had the first part of the base assembled.
We soon discovered that the cap the builder put on the gas hookup was pretty much welded to the nipple. The nipple came apart from the valve easily enough, but the cap wouldn’t budge, so I made a last-minute run to Home Depot to buy a replacement nipple. Aside from that small snag, everything went together quickly and painlessly. By the time I got back from the store with my $0.69 piece of pipe, Pam and Arman had arrived and taken over my sofa, and Brian had all but finished the assembly.
I had the foresight to set the steaks marinating in the morning, and had prepped the couscous salad in the afternoon, so there was little to do but assemble some veggie skewers and grill it all up.
It was delicious.
After dinner, we broke out Ticket to Ride: Europe, which none of the others had played before. We played in about 90 minutes, which is typical for a four-player game with new players. Everyone enjoyed the game, and it was definitely an interesting one. Pam set about hoarding locomotives, Brian played spoiler to Arman’s plans, and I managed to wiggle and weave my way from Lisbon to Stockholm to complete a number of tickets.
After we finished, the group wanted to play some more, so I got out Blokus and we played a few quick games. I’m not sure who gave it the name “the anti-Tetris“, but it stuck for the rest of the evening. Blokus is one of those subtle games where you pick up the basics really easily, but which can take a while to learn all the tricks. I had a large advantage, being the only one who had played before, but the others picked on me so it evened out somewhat.
And so it was that Sunday was a day that combined three of my favorite things: good food, good company, and good gaming.
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2008.03.03
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 8:22 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Jason, Chris, Meela, and I played a four-player game of Thebes on Saturday. The game was very satisfying and a lot of fun. I managed to win with 59 points, but it was a very tight race – Chris wound up with 57 points and Meela had 55. In the end it was luck that saved me – I managed to sneak in a 5-point exhibition on my penultimate turn that jumped me from third to first.
The more games of Thebes I play, the more I appreciate it. There is a strong luck element to the game, but like most games that feature luck, it feels like a more skilled player will win more often than less skilled players. There were many points when I felt like I wasn’t doing as well as the others, but I focused on making the most of each turn, taking the best choice that presented itself.
Chris pushed his luck at the end by going fishing for a seventh Congress card, which he did manage to find due to his persistence, and it nearly won him the game. It would have had I not also pushed my luck and turned up a 5-point exhibition I was able to do.
Part of the trick to Thebes is knowing when to take a risk and push your luck, and when to simply make the best of what’s available at the moment. I haven’t fully figured it out yet, but I’m getting there.
After supper, Jason and I took on Yog-Sothoth in a game of Arkham Horror, using the King in Yellow expansion. We wanted to toughen the game a little, so we played with the expansion in Touring Performance style. We decided not to use a Herald, though, because we didn’t want it to be too tough.
Ahem. We got our asses handed to us. We lost the game in about a dozen turns, hitting Act III of the play. I had managed to close only a single gate, and couldn’t seal it.
What really sucked is that I had a really cool character with neato weapons and things for a change. Of course, that hardly mattered when I spent two of my turns delayed in Other Worlds, and then got smacked by some random mid-level monster because I couldn’t roll the dice to save my life. 3 successes on 8 dice is a bit of a challenge (slightly below the odds), but I managed to roll 0 successes on 6+ dice several times during the game. If only I had been playing Axis and Allies instead. Sigh.
So, a mere 60 minutes after setting up the game, we were shaking our heads and putting it away. We’ll get you next time, Yog.
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